Halloween

I love Halloween. It isn’t my favorite holiday (that would be Christmas) but Halloween is definitely a super fun occasion in our family. The tradition started about 12 years ago when Connor was a toddler and all of us (Mom, Nanny, Pappy and I) would head out to Honey and Beau's house to see him dressed up in something adorable. Soon Paige was born and over the years Halloween kept getting bigger and bigger. Most of us would dress up, Honey would make something yummy and we would have a fun night together. I have always loved Halloween and even when I was growing up my grandparents were really into it. Every October 31^st they would drop by to visit us dressed up in costume so it's great that we are getting to carry on the tradition with Connor and Paige!

This year was Connor’s first time not going out but there were enough costumes amongst the adults! Paige was Cleopatra (Katy Perry’s Cleopatra), Nanny was a nun, Pappy a creepy monkey, Mom a Clown, and me a witch. Amanda and Liv dropped by later in the night and were a gorilla and teletubby.  Dad, Brian, Beau, Owen, Connor and Honey were all themselves. I bought my costume at a Halloween store and was happy with how it turned out. The one thing I did learn was not to use temporary hair dye as the purple I used didn't fully wash out for weeks! 

I decided to get in the Halloween spirit through baking (evil Pinterest!) and made a bunch of spooky food items! There were graveyard cupcakes (worms and dirt with skeletons), a mummified baked brie, a Halloween trail mix, and Halloween bark.

For the cupcakes – I just made a batch normally (with Halloween cupcake wrappers) and once they had cooled I iced the top with store bought frosting (sorry cake decorating teachers - I cheated!). Then I dipped the tops in Oreo cookie crumbs, topped them with a gummy worm and then the skeleton candy pieces. Viola – an easy and spooky treat!

The brie was a bit harder – I took a brie wheel and put it in the middle of a puff pastry circle using a few generous tablespoons of raspberry jam to hold it in place.  Then using strips of the pastry I wrapped the brie wheels like a mummy, and then added pecans for eyes. I baked it at 400 for about 20 minutes until the pastry browned and the cheese was melted. I served it with pieces of French bread and crackers. Super delicious!  

The trail mix was my own creation – I used the left over candy from the bark (candy corn, chocolate pretzels, kit kat bars, sour rings and m&m’s) and mixed them in with some popcorn. It was addicting! I also served it in a cauldron which was pretty fun! :) The whole night everyone kept heading to this bowl to grab handfuls - myself included. I love that it's easily adaptable to other holidays just by changing up the candy and chocolate options. I know I will be making this again. 

The bark was probably my least favorite. While it looked great it was super sweet and hardly got touched. It involved melting 3 cups of chocolate chips and spreading them out on parchment paper. Then topping it with an assortment of candy and refrigerating for a 3+ hours. I would try this again, but will do some research on ways to cut the sweetness down a bit.

Here are a few group photos of Halloweens past!